I’ve been reading John Wideman’s books for years, intrigued first by his lyrical explorations of the criminal justice system, of racism and class and privilege.

English professor, Rhodes scholar, MacArthur “genius.” Particularly after looking at that picture of him.īeth Schwartzapfel: This is John Edgar Wideman, author of more than a dozen books. John Wideman: I don’t know if I could read this. This passage here that I’ve marked with the red pen. I don’t want to get into anything that even begins to feel like “he said, she said,” cause that ain’t going no where.īeth Schwartzapfel: I flagged a couple of passages. Life Without Parole: Inside the secretive world of parole boardsīeth Schwartzapfel: Would you be willing to read a couple of passages? I brought some of your books with me that speak to some of these issues. The “Violation” series will also be available on The Marshall Project’s site and on Here & Now from NPR and WBUR. Listen to new episodes each Wednesday, through the player at the top of the page, or wherever you get your podcasts. He spoke with “Violation” host Beth Schwartzapfel in a rare, in-depth interview about his son’s case that listeners will hear throughout the series, including this premiere.

Jacob’s father, John Edgar Wideman, is an acclaimed author of many books on race, violence and criminal justice. This debut episode of “Violation,” a podcast from The Marshall Project and WBUR, introduces the story of the crime that has bound two families together for decades. Flagstaff Police Departmentīeth Schwartzapfel, the reporter and host for the “Violation” podcast, outside the Arizona State Prison Complex in Tucson, where Jake is incarcerated, in December of 2022. The next morning, the car was gone and so was Jake. The night before Eric was found fatally stabbed, Jake asked Hammond, the camp counselor, for the keys to the Oldsmobile they were traveling in. The motel in Flagstaff, Ariz., where the campers stayed the night of the murder and where Eric’s body was found. The police department redacted the faces of the other campers because they were minors at the time. Jake with Bill Hammond, a camp counselor, on a trip that they took with Eric and two other boys to see national parks in the West in 1986.

He is pictured here on the trip during which he killed Eric. In 2016, less than nine months after he was released, Jake was put back into prison. Jake spent three decades in prison for killing Eric when he was 16. Family photo provided by the Kanes to the parole board Eric was the youngest of three children and loved to read. In 1986, as a teen at summer camp, Jacob Wideman murdered fellow camper Eric Kane, pictured here in 1985.

An Old Man by Eric M. Black